According to philly.com: Philadelphia CeaseFire is based on CeaseFire Chicago, which was launched in 2000 and which was the subject of a documentary, The Interrupters. The effort uses a three-pronged approach to preventing violence: identification and detection; interruption, intervention, and risk reduction; and changing behavior and norms, officials said.

phillytrib.com reports: Philadelphia Ceasefire is part of a nationwide, evidence-based violence intervention program which has been proven to decrease instances of gun violence. The Philadelphia connection is attached to Temple University’s School of Medicine and based at the school’s Center for Bioethics. In 2008, the Department of Justice issued a report on Ceasefire’s effectiveness and found a reduction of up to 73 percent in the number of shootings and killings in areas of Chicago where Ceasefire was active.

news.temple.eduhas more info: Integral to the success of CeaseFire is the involvement of a team consisting of an outreach coordinator and ex-offenders serving as outreach workers, who use their built-in credibility to act as mentors to youths in the targeted demographic — 14-25 years old. The workers meet with at-risk youth, coaching them on how to get out of a lifestyle that often ends with gun violence.

According to ceasefirechicago.org, CeaseFire’s track-record for effectiveness in reducing shootings and killings was validated earlier this year in Baltimore by a three year Johns Hopkins University study of four historically violent neighborhoods—McElderry Park, Elwood Park, Madison-Eastend, Cherry Hill—showing a statistically significant decline in either homicides or nonfatal shootings or both in each of the communities.